Gusto – Skylander Review
Gusto is a brand new Air Trap Master which debuts in Skylanders Trap Team. He used to be a cloud wrangler in the peaceful Thunderclap Kingdom. He became friends with a mysterious Cloud Dragon who taught Gusto how to master the wind. One day a fleet of Dragon Hunters came to try to capture the mysterious Cloud Dragon. Gusto protected and defended the dragon by using a curved stick. Every time Gusto through the stick at an enemy, it would come right back to him. This surprised the hunters and forced them to retreat. For his act of heroism and bravery, Gusto became a Trap Master and was given a new Traptanium Boomerang to help defend the Skylands.
When you first see Gusto you might not be too impressed. His large bare belly and round face gives the impression that he might be slow, lumbering and maybe even a little easy to take damage. His light blue body is only wearing some darker blue pants and matching wrist cuffs. His large blue Traptanium boomerang stands out though, and you know he’ll be throwing it. None of this screams exciting, and he actually invokes a feeling of calmness. He stands confidently on a cloud and with winged ears there is no mistaking that this is an Air Element Skylander. Being of a larger size, his figure doesn’t have any weak points or breakable areas to worry about. The only area of concern is where he is holding the boomerang in one hand. However, he has a big hand and uses all of it to grip the wide boomerang leaving no real fear of it breaking off. Once in the game, Gusto puts his size to good use. He doesn’t need speed with his huge Traptanium boomerang, and once his attacks are fully upgraded, Gusto will become one of the most devastating Skylanders in the game.
Gusto starts with the attack you would expect, he can through his Traptanium Boomerang. It’s a good ranged attack, and it’s why you will want to use him initially. 
His other starting attack is called the Inhaler. This attack allows him to suck in the enemies around him and then spit them back out to damage them. It’s an interesting attack that you almost want to forget. However, after an upgrade called The Breath of Life, it will allow Gusto to regain HP from inhaling enemies. Then it becomes more useful and strategic. Gusto can also add a third attack called Twistin’ In The Wind. This attack allows Gusto to spin around and hit enemies with his held out boomerang. It’s a powerful attack that will damage all nearby enemies while at the same time making Gusto almost untouchable. It’s short lived though, so you’ll want to use this attack to get out of trouble. Gusto has two upgrade paths, one focuses on upgrading the boomerang attacks while the other path focuses on upgrading his spinning attacks. We chose to upgrade the boomerang attacks and they were quite amazing. Besides doing more damage, throwing the boomerang can also create mini hurricanes that damage any enemy they touch. The final upgrade in the path will spawn boomerangs that will spin around Gusto and protect him each time he throws a boomerang. This upgrade almost makes Gusto invincible and one of our favorite choices for the harder arena challenges. Finally Gusto’s Soul Gem Ability allows him to inhale the boomerang the throws. This will result in much higher damage when he exhales, but it’s hard to notice that the new ability has taken effect.
Overall Gusto is a fantastic Skylander. His looks may be deceiving but once he is fully maxed out, he is one of the most powerful Skylanders that we have played with in Trap Team. His boomerang attack does a lot of damage at range, and in wide arcs. Multiple upgrades give Gusto both very powerful attacks and can add protection which are near invincible as they wipe out nearby enemies. Plus he can heal himself by inhaling enemies after an upgrade. Gusto is another durable figure, so there is no fear of breaking if it’s played with outside of the game. So if you’ve passed on Gusto in the past because he doesn’t look interesting enough, reconsider, because Gusto is a lot more fun to play with than you might think.
SkylanderNutts gives Gusto…
9.5 out of 10
Gusto Video Review
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I have to redo my Gusto, then, because I chose the other path, and it made him into one of the worst Skylanders in my collection. I would give that path a 1 out of 10. You turn in an impotent ball of lightning that tickles the enemies for seemingly less damage than the attack did before it got “upgraded”!
Oh, no! It’s strange how some paths seem to be pretty useless. I think Gusto was the character we went to to survive the “one hit” or “no hit” arena battles. Luckily if you play through the Kaos challenges a little, re-gaining levels and collecting money isn’t very hard. You should be able to redo Gusto fairly easily.